Southeast Flood Threat Continues This Week

By Brian Lada, Meteorologist

August 19,2013; 9:30PM,EDT

 

 

The trend of wet weather will persist across the Southeast this week, continuing the flooding threat from Mississippi through the Carolinas.
Over the weekend, tropical moisture fueled round after round of heavy thunderstorms, bringing several inches of rain to Pensacola, Fla., Tallahassee, Fla., Macon, Ga., Mobile, Ala., and Gulfport, Miss.
On Monday afternoon and early evening, heavy rain fell on Charleston, S.C., dumping 1.15 inches of rain on the city in just 18 minutes according to a report by a trained spotter. An hour later, another trained spotter reported that a storm near Tampa International Airport, Fla., caused more than 3 inches of rain to fall in one hour on the city.
Later Monday evening, heavy rain continued to fall on parts of Georgia causing numerous road closures across the state due to flash flooding, according to several 911 call centers.
Tropical moisture will continue to surge into the Southeast, extending the threat of flash flooding through the first part of the week. The areas at greatest risk include the Florida Panhandle and southern parts of Alabama and Georgia.
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While these areas are at greatest risk for flooding, showers and thunderstorms across the rest of the Southeast could still cause localized flash flooding.

With the amount of rain that has fallen in the Southeast over recent weeks, the ground has become super saturated with water in many areas.
Any significant rainfall in these areas can quickly lead to flooding as rainwater will run off the ground rather than being absorbed.
This large amount of runoff can cause streams to jump outside of their banks with little to no notice.

This year has been an unusually wet year across the Southeast. Many major cities are several inches above their normal rainfall amount so far in 2013.
Atlanta, Ga., has been one of the wettest cities across the region in 2013, already receiving more rainfall this year than the city typically receives in an entire calendar year.
Columbus, Ga., is another city that has surpassed its yearly rainfall total, receiving over 50 inches of rain as of Aug. 18.
With more rain on the way, more cities are likely to join Atlanta and Columbus.